A Norwegian trinket box

Norwegian Trinket Box

European immigrants often brought trinkets and other reminders of home with them to Wisconsin, which helped to create a sense of continuity between their European traditions and their new lives in the U.S. Immigrants were able to bring very few possessions with them so what they did bring, carried great sentimental value. Ole Olsen Kalvestrand brought this box, carved by his great-great-great grandfather (another Ole Olsen Kalvestrand), with him to Wisconsin around 1870. The Kalvestrand's were one of the many thousands of Norwegians who settled in Wisconsin in the 1860s and 1870s.